Media toolkit: create explainer animations

Creating a video about a topic makes you really investigate and work towards a deeper understanding of that topic. This is certainly true when you make an explainer animation video. In a short timeframe you explain the essence of a topic in a visual way. During the process you also increase your design skills and understanding of visual language.

Scripting and designing all visual elements of an explainer animation can be tough and time consuming. Start with the explanation of an element or aspect of a topic and keep the explainer video short.

For making animations, a wide range of software is available. The largest portion of available software is aimed at making complex animations and takes too much learning time for students within an assignment. Some of the easier tools within reach of students are:

PowerPoint:  With Powerpoint you can create basic animations that are of sufficient quality for explainer video assignments.  A support page can be found here Links to an external site.. When your animation is finished, you can create a video with these steps Links to an external site..

Moovly Links to an external site. is a simple and versatile web-based platform for creating videos and presentations. It offers stock templates, images and audio but you can also import your own creations to animate. Moovly offers a free educational subscription plan Links to an external site. that lets you export watermarked videos.

Glaxnimate Links to an external site. is the least complicated and well maintained free animation software we could find. However, it can still be intimidating when first starting to animate but for larger projects it is certainly an option. To get started, we recommend using the tutorials on the glaxnimate website. Links to an external site.